David Hockney last year left Yorkshire and returned to his home in the Hollywood Hills after a series of traumatic events in his personal life. Here the 77-year-old reveals how California has rejuvenated him, before answering questions from Observer readers and cultural figures

In Ian McEwan’s book The Children Act, a high court judge must decide whether a teenage boy lives or dies. In his own life, the novelist feels mortality pressing in – but, he says, he’s enjoying himself far too much to slow down just yet

She was the angry, androgynous runaway who got chatted up by Allen Ginsberg and had a grand affair with Robert Mapplethorpe. And at 66 Patti Smith shows no sign of mellowing. We spend a gothic afternoon at home with the punk legend